The following is submitted by one of the Petitioners for the Appeal of the Selectmen’s changing of the name of the road known as WANKINQUOAH AVENUE in the Swifts Beach area to OCEANSIDE DRIVE.

(Please note the author has made an effort to untangle another very complicated mess created by the Selectmen.)

                           HISTORY OF THE CASE 2006-2008 INCLUDING PRIOR PROCEEDINGS

    In the year 2006 there existed in the Town of Wareham several streets with duplicate names.  The Town was instituting an E-9-1-1 call system, and the duplicate names were a potential source of confusion. The E-9-1-1 Regulations prohibit the use of identical street names in the same municipality. (A copy of the relevant portion of those Regulations is attached hereto as Exhibit A). One of the names which appeared on streets in different sections of the Town was “Wankinquoah.”  There were variant spellings of the street name, including “Wankinco”, all pronounced “Wan-kink-oh”.
The Board of Selectmen in the Town of Wareham has the authority to change the names of streets. In 2006 the Board of Selectmen purported to delegate to the local Planning Board the authority to rename streets to address the E-9-1-1 issue.  On August 28, 2006 the Planning Board held a public hearing at which it purported to authorize by its’ vote the name change for several streets in the Town. The names of Wankinco Avenue (off Ware) and Wankinquoah Road (off Cromesett) were changed.  That left only one street in the Town with “Wankinquoah” in its name. This was Wankinquoah Avenue, which was located in the Swift’s Beach section of the Town.

To read the rest of this, please go to:
WANKINQUOAH AVE/OCEANSIDE DRIVE

P-SPAN
TAKEBACKWAREHAM
April 6, 2010

Last edited by billw (2010-01-17 18:26:12)